Thursday, August 30, 2007

We encourage you to watch Josh Marshall's video on the corruption gap.Marshall claims in the last 7 months Republicans are still way ahead in corruption.I guess everyone might have a different definition of corruption.Is it just scandal,being investigated,indicted,or convicted? I guess the definition is up to you.If you expand corruption to beyond 7 months you'll see the Republicans don't have a monopoly.Here's a list of some of the things the liberal media and Josh Marshall don't want to emphasize or just don't really care about.

Robert Creamer, the husband of U. S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill) who was sentenced to jail for running a community group and paying himself big bucks while banks held the bag, has been teaching a group of young (mostly) volunteers for the presidential campaign of Barack Obama, I am exclusively revealing today.

Nothing wrong with Creamer earning a living. Indeed not long ago he surfaced as a registered lobbyist working against the Senate confirmation of UN ambassador John Bolton, paid by the George Soros-funded “Open Society Policy Center.” But the idea of a convicted felon who kited checks lecturing the supposedly idealistic Obama campaign on how to raise money and get elected is a bit much.

Creamer taught at “Camp Obama,” a week-long summer camp last month held at the presidential candidate’s office in Chicago for campaign interns and volunteers-just a few blocks away from the federal court where on August 31, 2005 he pleaded guilty to charges of bank fraud and failure to pay federal taxes…on charges brought by U. S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. He admitted in his 18-page signed plea agreement that he wrote checks on accounts that lacked funds and did so repeatedly as he moved money from one account to another in three banks. He had a multiple group of organizations that received money, the best known being the “Illinois Public Action Council” a left-wing group on which his wife, Jan Schakowsky, was a board member while the manipulating was going on. She was already in Congress when he pleaded guilty; she was not charged.

Creamer’s retention to instruct the Obama for President campaign is probably the most revelatory hint that the hopeful, idealistic, whimsical message floated by the candidate is mere vapor obscuring a cynical operation…unless, of course, the Obama people had no idea of Creamer or what his past represents.

Obama the reformer?2)Just who is Barack Obama? Just your typical Illinois politician.Here's a Chicago Sun-Times story on Obama's patron Tony Rezko:

As a state senator, Barack Obama wrote letters to city and state officials supporting his political patron Tony Rezko's successful bid to get more than $14 million from taxpayers to build apartments for senior citizens.

The deal included $855,000 in development fees for Rezko and his partner, Allison S. Davis, Obama's former boss, according to records from the project, which was four blocks outside Obama's state Senate district.

Obama's letters, written nearly nine years ago, for the first time show the Democratic presidential hopeful did a political favor for Rezko -- a longtime friend, campaign fund-raiser and client of the law firm where Obama worked -- who was indicted last fall on federal charges that accuse him of demanding kickbacks from companies seeking state business under Gov. Blagojevich.

The letters appear to contradict a statement last December from Obama, who told the Chicago Tribune that, in all the years he's known Rezko, "I've never done any favors for him.''

Which leads up to Illinois' Governor.3)Rod Blagojevich is the Democratic Governor of the very corrupt state of Illinois.Patrick Fitzgerald is getting rather close to this guy.Rich Miller reports:

The U.S. Attorney’s office allowed two guilty-plea agreements to weave a sinister tale last week about an alleged “fundraising strategy” supposedly headed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich.The alleged strategy was designed to strong-arm firms seeking business with the Teachers’ Retirement System and other state boards into hiring do-nothing consultants who would then kick money back to the governor’s campaign fund.By including these allegations in the plea agreements — some of which didn’t seem necessary — the feds appear to have been going out of their way to point a flashing neon arrow right at Blagojevich and his two top fundraisers, Chris Kelly and Tony Rezko.Joe Cari’s plea agreement is the more interesting of the two. A one-time finance chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Cari claimed in the plea agreement that the infamous Stuart Levine told him that “a high-ranking Illinois public official (“Public Official A”), acting through two close associates, was selecting consultants for the private equity funds that appeared before the State Pension Funds.”Several media reports and independent sources say that Blagojevich is Public Official A. Media reports and sources identify Rezko and Kelly as the governor’s top fundraisers and advisers.

Tony Rezko's name just keeps coming up with Democrats.We could write for hours on Mayor Daley and his all Democratic town of constant corruption,but we'll go to New Jersey.4)New Jersey State Senator Wayne Bryant reports:

A federal grand jury Thursday indicted Wayne R. Bryant, the Democratic state senator at the heart of a criminal investigation of the Legislature, alleging that he bestowed multimillion-dollar grants in exchange for three fictitious jobs and an $81,000-a-year public pension.

Also named in the 20-count indictment was R. Michael Gallagher, a former University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey dean who allegedly rigged Bryant’s hiring as a consultant, and who manipulated data to give himself nearly $100,000 in performance bonuses.

“Senator Bryant corrupted multiple public agencies to feed his own insatiable desire to put more money in his pocket,” U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie said in a news conference outside the Clarkson S. Fisher Federal Building in Trenton. “He succeeded in making himself rich in the short term and secure in the long term. … That scheme stops today.”

Attorney General Zulima V. Farber, in a tense and combative statement, resigned this evening after a state investigation found that she had violated her own department’s code of ethics by going to the aid of her live-in companion during a traffic stop.

“I am steadfast in my conviction that the findings do not compel my resignation, and no one has asked for it,” Ms. Farber said, before conceding that staying on would cause too much disruption and doubt for her to serve effectively in office.

As she spoke, her eyes visibly moist, Ms. Farber stood next to Gov. Jon S. Corzine, who was enduring the first personnel crisis of his seven-month-old administration.

Which leads up to Jon Corzine.6)Corzine wasn't following do gooder liberal protocal:

An emotional Gov. Jon S. Corzine was discharged from a hospital Monday and begged forgiveness for not wearing a seat belt during a crash 18 days earlier in which he sustained critical injuries.

"I understand that I set a very poor example for a lot of young people, a lot of people in general," a teary-eyed Corzine said.

"I certainly hope the state will forgive me. And I'll work very hard to set the right kind of example," Corzine said from his wheelchair outside the hospital.

Last week, Corzine confirmed that he gave $470,000 to his ex-girlfriend, Carla Katz, who also happens to be the president of the state chapter of the Communications Workers of America, which represents 9,000 New Jersey state employees.

If elected governor, Corzine would not only oversee salary negotiations with state workers, but might face battles to reel in pension benefits and impose more accountability, especially with state child-welfare workers. How can he objectively do this if he not only had a romantic relationship with the union's boss but gave her a huge wad of cash?

Doesn't Corzine see a conflict of interest?

Posing that question to him is a waste of time. Similar concerns about Corzine's spending have dogged him since her entered politics five years ago. But he has never seriously faced them.

Remember how he gave money to the Black Ministers' Council when he ran for the U.S. Senate - then managed to get the council's endorsement? How about the $873,000 payout to South Jersey political boss George Norcross in return for his backing?

More recently, as Corzine lined up support to run for governor, he donated thousands to county Democratic clubs in return for endorsements. He even skirted campaign contribution rules by having his 89-year-old mother in Illinois give $37,000 the Bergen's Democrats.

Anyone who knows much about real power in Congress knows that almost every member of the House and Senate lusts after a seat on the Appropriations Committee and hopes one day to achieve the status of Cardinal. The Cardinals, of course, are the folks who chair the various Appropriations Committee subcommittees and literally control the billions of dollars that pass through their hands.

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D) chairs the Senate Rules Committee, but she’s also a Cardinal. She is currently chairwoman of the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies subcommittee, but until last year was for six years the top Democrat on the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies (or “Milcon”) sub-committee, where she may have directed more than $1 billion to companies controlled by her husband.

If the inferences finally coming out about what she did while on Milcon prove true, she may be on the way to morphing from a respected senior Democrat into another poster child for congressional corruption.

The problems stem from her subcommittee activities from 2001 to late 2005, when she quit. During that period the public record suggests she knowingly took part in decisions that eventually put millions of dollars into her husband’s pocket — the classic conflict of interest that exploited her position and power to channel money to her husband’s companies.

Could you imagine if Feinstein were a Republican? In conclusion,some of this stuff is beyond 7 months,some of it is rather current...Update.Due to popular demand(welcome Instapundit.com readers) you want more Democratic corruption? You've got it.8)Just today,we get this from The Chicago Sun-Times:

Southern Illinois University President Glenn Poshard, a former Democratic gubernatorial nominee, is to meet with faculty and staff leaders today to respond to allegations he plagiarized parts of his doctoral dissertation.

The allegations were reported Thursday in the Daily Egyptian, the student newspaper at SIU, where Poshard received a Ph.D. in 1984. He has been the system president since 2005 and was a congressman when he ran unsuccessfully for Illinois governor in 1998.

The newspaper reported that 14 sections of Poshard's 111-page paper on education for gifted children included verbatim text from other sources that aren't credited. Another 16 sections are properly cited but don't include quotation marks to indicate they are not Poshard's own words, the paper said.

With the startling admission -- and public apology -- regarding an affair with his campaign manager's wife, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom set off on Thursday what one Democratic strategist described as a mushroom cloud over his promising political career.

Already, politicians and consultants are assessing the fallout: Has the talented Democratic rising star irrevocably damaged his chances for re-election -- and prospects for state or national office? And has he also wounded his party by handing Republicans juicy evidence of "San Francisco values" that are outside the mainstream?

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who has known and supported the mayor for years, said Thursday in Washington that Newsom's behavior "clearly was wrong" but added that the mayor has undergone "awful" pressures in the wake of a tough divorce and insisted she will stand behind him.

10)Rahm Emanuel has some very corrupt people working for him.As John Kass of the Chicago Tribune reports:

And all I wanted to know from political operative Emanuel was this: Who sent Tomczak's army?

If he's more than (D-Tomczak), it's quite possible that he's (D-Philosopher).

Rahm Emanuel,Mr.Details, knows nothing about a patronage army working for him.11)Did you think you heard the last of Tony Rezko in this blog entry? Guess again.Here's the Rezko connection to Democratic Congressman Luis Gutierrez:

Rep. Luis Gutierrez got a deal on a riverfront town house built by Antoin "Tony" Rezko, a developer and prominent political fund-raiser now under indictment for an alleged kickback scheme involving state pension funds.

Gutierrez paid $434,900 three years ago for the town house along the Chicago River just north of Diversey. That's far less than his neighbors paid for any of the other riverfront town houses in the development, records show.

Gutierrez no longer lives there. In March, he sold the town house for $610,000 -- a 40 percent profit.

Only two other original owners have sold their riverfront town houses -- one paid $535,000 and sold it for $650,000, a 21 percent profit; the other paid $622,000 and sold it for $662,000, a 6 percent profit.

Gutierrez said he's been friends for 20 years with Rezko, whose family has donated more than $19,000 to the congressman's campaign funds over the years.

But the congressman said their friendship had nothing to do with him getting the cheapest price on any of the 17 riverfront town houses Rezko built, with everyone else paying between $495,000 and $660,000, in some cases for smaller homes.

12)What powerful elected Democrat secretly runs Chicago behind the scenes and has referred to African-Americans as "niggers"(no it isn't Mayor Daley)? Did this same powerful Democrat try to fix a murder trial? Would this same Democrat be the individual that slates Democratic judges in Cook County? Why didn't this powerful Democrat sue this this author for saying this? Here's the introduction to this explosive book.

13)This deceased elected Chicago Democrat's name keeps coming up in the news.Why,his name has come up at the Family Secrets Trial.Today,in Chicago,he probably has more relatives on the City of Chicago payroll than anyone else.In the Democratic town of Chicago: even high ranking "made members" of the Chicago Mob can be elected politicians.Imagine that.

14)John Conyers is a true expert in corruption.A rather big time Democrat.

Even by the scandal-pocked history of New York politics, Eliot Spitzer's fall from grace is extraordinary. A mere seven months into his term after a landslide victory, the Empire State's brash new governor is openly ridiculed as a liar and worse. An astonishing 80 percent of respondents tell pollsters they want the governor to testify under oath to prove his claim that he had nothing to do with "troopergate," a dirty-tricks plot to smear Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, a Republican rival.

His fellow Democratic pols are largely abandoning him. After two investigations found that his top aides used the state police for a political hit job, and with four more probes gearing up, one of which could bring indictments, Spitzer is suddenly a lonely man. As one prominent supporter put it, "nobody believes him when he says he didn't know." Left unsaid was the glee that many feel at Spitzer's comeuppance.

Two political action committees linked to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi have been charged with attempting to circumvent to legal limits on campaign giving, the Federal Election Commission has ruled.

According to the March 2004 FEC finding, Pelosi appears to have violated the same kind of arcane campaign finance regulation that spurred the indictment of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay this week.

The San Francisco Chronicle explained at the time:

"The FEC ruled that two Pelosi political action committees created to help Democrats in the 2002 elections were related instead of being independent and therefore violated a rule against giving more than the maximum $5,000 annual contribution."